I thought I had written before about Colin Tudge's book but when I used the search engine for this site it didn't come up. But there it is. Today it wasn't a book but a radio interview this morning by a serious interviewer who does long interviews on important and/or esoteric subjects. One today was on the history of the banana tree. "Experts from Cambridge University look set to save the humble banana from extinction after developing a technique to graft different species of the fruit together, something previously thought impossible." They were talking to a Mr Drori who is the author of Around the World in 80 Trees and Around the World in 80 Plants. Bananas that we eat apparently are all of one species the Cavendish and attempts to make other edible species have not been successful so far.
Anyway you can find it by searching the RNZ site under Saturday morning or Kim Hill.

The Tordenskioleika (Tordenskiold Oak), Horten Norway.



wiki:
 The tree trunk is very hollow, so the tree is almost split in two. The oak was protected by a royal decree on December 9, 1921. It is not possible to say how old the tree is, but it goes for at least 800, maybe close to 1,000 years. The tree has been supported and bolted to hold the trunk together, and a fence has been set up around the tree as a hedge on the day it falls.
About this oak it is said that admiral Peter Wessel Tordenskiold used it as a bollard when he was to moor his ship, and when the ship was to be keeled, the tree turned around. The bay by the tree is also nicknamed Tordenskjoldbukta (Tordenskiold Bay).

I have been reading a book, The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan (not a very good one overall), which features the agave americana, a large tree that flowers rarely and then dies, I think, though a site said it has little suckers that will grow. We have one in the Dunedin Botanic Gardens which caused quite a stir in 2009 when it flowered. People came from all around to watch it. In 2019 there was another story about one which was not in the gardens but on a street corner. [url=Blooming big plant in Roslyn showing age]Agave americana[/url] I seem to have forgotten how to do a link, though I went to where it says link, but if you want more just type in Agave Roslyn.

Caro wrote:

...  the agave americana, a large tree that flowers rarely and then dies ...

Hence why they are also known as the century plant, although in truth they usually only live a few decades before flowering and dying. They are almost naturalised around here amongst the vineyards on the dry Roussillon plain, mostly having propagated by the base suckers (often with a bit of human help to create 'hedging') although they do sometimes flower, set seed and propagate that way. They're rather like cactus; very drought tolerant and with vicious spikes along the edge of the leaves and at the tips. Interesting that you refer to them as a tree because for most of their life they exist only as a squat plant formed of a rather untidy rosette of thick fleshy leaves, each at most only a couple of metres in length. It's only when they push up the spectacular flower spike that they look tree-like. But as Colin Tudge says in "The secret life of trees"; what exactly is a tree? While we all generally know what we mean by "tree", it isn't that easy to define: what about 30m tall bamboos, 10m tall cactus plants, 5m tall tree ferns, or 10cm tall dwarf birches; are any of these trees and if not why not? I really don't know.


Agave americana plants in flower - the scruffy bit at the bottom is normally all the plant consists of.

Similar to cactus plants, the thick leaves of agaves function as storage for water, and the juice can be extracted and then fermented to make the drink known as pulque. In Mexico agaves are called mezcales and the plant juice is fermented and then distilled to make the high-alcohol product mezcal (or tequila when specifically made from the related Agave tequilana or blue agave) and sometimes given extra flavouring by the addition of the pungent mezcal worm (the caterpillar of the agave moth). Agave leaves also contain tough fibres that are used to manufacture rope and woven to make tough sacking or matting.

Agave syrup is one of the items that can be used as an alternative sweetener to sugar.  When I was diagnosed as having high blood pressure I had doctor's orders to cut down on or cut out sugar.  Nowadays I usually have some sugar in should I have guests who need it but I mostly try to avoid it though there are some drinks (strong coffee) which I find need a little sweetening.  Though I don't have coffee so much these days because it contains caffeine.  There is decaffeinated coffee available for purchase but someone told me that the process used to remove the caffeine isn't that good for the health either.  Though I mustn't deviate too far from the agave plant......